Where does one even begin to pick a favourite John Williams piece? The totality of his compositions are an embarrassment of riches that defined an entire generation of cinema, and I struggle to even narrow it down below double digits!
My Welsh heritage makes me kinda want to pick
Suo Gan from 'Empire of the Sun', but he didn't write it, he just arranged it (beautifully.) As a massive Star Wars fan, I feel like I have to put the entirety of that work in the zeroth position in the interests of fairness, or it'd swallow up everything else. But if one must give an honourable mention there it's have to be Leia's Theme; my favourite performance of which was for
the musical tribute to the late Carrie Fisher in 2017 (name one other person on the planet that can shush a boisterous crowd to silence so effectively!)
So rather than go down the usual routes, I think I'll pick one of his more overlooked scores in 'Home Alone', and it's main theme 'Somewhere in My Memory'. Just a wholesome, sensitive musical piece for a movie that I was the perfect age for when it came out. Harry Potter fans will no doubt hear some familiar flourishes in this one.
If anyone is interested in digging deeper into Williams' work--and musical scoring in general--I recommend having a listen to
David W. Collins' podcast '
The Soundtrack Show'.
